I’m really really happy with how the colors have turned out. I’ve said it before, but the Sherwin Williams paint chips are – without fail – balls on accurate. The color on this chip is the color on your wall, period. I pay a little more for the paint but I am never, ever surprised. Also, SW does a good job of sending out coupons and giving you deals if you’re on their Preferred Customer list (which you can do at any store by giving them your mailing address). Their deals are typically 20-30% off – I got all of

Left LR wall from the front door. New color: SW Dormer Brown.

the paint for these projects at 30% off. I used their Cashmere line, Low Lustre (if you care).

My tools for this project were the Shur-Line 9″ roller with padded handle and extendable arm, Shur-Line Edge Like a Pro, a 1″ paintbrush, latex gloves and Ziplock bags. I did a better job using those supplies (and no tape) than the “professional” who painted this place last. The only thing that required tape was light outlets and the one edge of cupboards because there wasn’t enough wallspace for the edger.

New color: SW Lemon Verbena.

I maintain that the edger is the single best paint tool innovation since the roller brush. It takes a little use to get the hang of it, and you need to wipe off the guides after every pass, but it is completely and utterly worth it. You CAN wash and reuse the pads, but I’ve been just pitching them after I’m done with the color.

The Ziplocks are invaluable between coats. Instead of trying to wash rollers and pads, sticking them in the zips until I’m using them again. It also makes for easy disposal when I’m

View from the dining/kitchen entry

finished – keeping me from getting paint all over myself when taking off the rollers. Buying a box of gloves is also much more practical than getting the little packages from the hardware store. Then you can just dispose of them whenever you’re done without feeling pressured to reuse them.

The basement project will be a lot more work and is going to be postponed until probably August, when I’m done with school.

View from dining/kitchen entry.

We’re having some folks over for a ‘deck-warming’ tonight. Mostly the house is squared away (hence the photos) but I’ve also got to review for my exam tonight.

View from kitchen/dining entry. New color: Cavern Clay.

Dining room from kitchen. Cavern Clay on the left Golden Gate on the right.

I don’t watch The View very often, but I enjoy their hot topics shows because I think they do a good job of covering the gamut of reasonably expected responses (considered/intellectual: Whoopi, Barbara; ignorant/emotional: Sherri, Elizabeth; going for the punchline: Joy). Today they were talking about the rumor of Joe Biden’s daughter having snorted cocaine and one of her dirtbag ‘friends’ shopping it around to tabloids. They were saying that you can’t tie the actions of a child to the parent, with which I absolutely agree.

Kids come into this world with their own personality and ability to make their own decisions. Ideally, the way that they are raised will influence some of their decisionmaking processes but ultimately they are their own person.

That shook round to the political spectrum and how it’s potentialy MORE unfair to hold these kids up because the press implies their parents aren’t good at their JOBS rather than at parenting (which is the more logical conclusion). This, of course, brought up the issue of Bristol Palin. I think there’s a difference in that particular case.

If Sarah Palin had refused to comment about the pregnancy (Biden has yet to comment on the drug allegation), or simply requested privacy, that would have been just fine. Instead she started crowing about how proud she was of her daughter’s “choice” and turned it into a pro-life wictory. This would also be fine, if Sarah Palin wasn’t actively campaigning to take that exact same “choice” away from everyone else. She SHOULD have been talking about how there wasn’t a choice, of course Bristol was having that kid because it was the only right thing to do – because that’s what she believes.. Instead, she MADE it a political issue by discussing it in those terms, precisely because she’s AGAINST a woman’s right to control her own bodily functions, and that is why it became okay to talk about it. You’ll notice that Bristol’s “choice” was a topic of conversation but her decision to drop out of high school was barely a blip.

Being a politician doesn’t hold you to a higher standard of being a parent. It doesn’t hold your kids to a higher standard, because your kids are entitled to make their own mistakes and learn from them. It DOES require that you occasionally shut your mouth and put your kids before your own political agenda.

The View was also hilarious today talking about Twitter. The whole ‘not getting it’ is easy to see. It’s sort of a mindless occupation, though it can be entertaining.

I was kind of interested to see Bill O’Reilly on the show and see if Joy Behar or Whoopi were going to call him out. O’Reilly *did* make a good point about shopping with your dollars – if you disagree with something, use your money to make your impact. It was also hilarious that Bill suddenly wanted to “move on” when they began discussing WHY we were in Iraq. Oddly, he rarely wants to “move on” on his own show. Speaking of which, I wanted to link this particularly heinous story. It’s especially nice because he has frequently spoken out on the rights of ‘celebrities’ to not be stalked. I guess famous people get more rights than everyone else.

Last political note: when the economists say you’ve got to keep spending money in order to fix the problem, people like Bill O’Reilly and Sherri Shepard should STFU. We’ve already spent into what most average people would consider to be imaginary numbers (as in, we can’t IMAGINE how much money it is) so if the people who study this FOR A LIVING think it’s the right path, I’m okay with it.

BUSY couple of days at work and some unexpected (and fun) travel over the weekend leads to a lack of posting.

Saturday we saw Watchmen. I loved it. Spouse even enjoyed it quite a lot. I seem to be in the minority of fans who 1. do not care that the ending was changed from the graphic novel. I thought the film ending made more sense and was more interesting/compelling. 2. Loved the soundtrack. Didn’t find it distracting and loved the song choices.

Sunday was 13 hours of work. Today was 8.5. Tomorrow is likely to be less, though there are no guarantees.

Today I took Piper for a run. By run I mean sprint/walk intervals. Our path was 1.8 miles roundtrip and hopefully we”ll work up to 3 miles. Here’s the view where we turn around:

Our turnaround point.

I’m also learning interesting things about cardio workouts at high altitudes. We’ll see if we can’t muster up the same enthusiasm tomorrow. It’s especially nice to do right before I go to work because Piper’s a little less wired up when I leave.

For tonight, I am sleeping in the dungeonlike-dark basement because I will not be awakened by 1. alarm clocks at 6:30 am or 2. sunshine coming in my window. I need to catch up on the sleep I didn’t get last night.

I finally decided to use the photo stitch option from my camera software and took photos from 3rd street (next to the football field, if you care). Now that I know how it works, I’m going to go back and take a better, more zoomed set so that you get an idea of how the mountains REALLY look. The zoom out to capture the whole range in these photos doesn’t do justice to how close they are. I also had to lop out huge chunks of big blue sky.

And working this afternoon/tonight, I’m posting early. Any time I want to go to Target, I have to drive to Frisco/Silverthorne. As I’ve said many times, I don’t mind having to drive an hour in any direction to run an errand because the views are stunning.